ITTF World Tour 2013

The ITTF World Tour 2013 was expanded to include the Americas, with USA hosting a tournament for the first time.

In 1996 the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) launched a brand new premier competition - The
ITTF Pro Tour.

It was a huge success, so in 2012, after 15 years of solid growth, they took it to the next level and re-named it the
ITTF World Tour.

The GAC Group (China-based car manufacturer Guangzhou Automobile Group) continued their sponsorship of the World tour in 2013 as the competition developed further, with three tiers of events now making up the World Tour - Super Series, Major Series and Challenge Series.

But to be invited to the Grand Finals, players must meet ALL the qualifying criteria...

2013 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals

The number of players at the 2013 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals was as follows...

Men's and women's singles will each have 17 players.

Men's and women's doubles will each have 8 pairs.

Under 21 men's and women's singles will each have 8 players.

And the qualifying criteria were...

SINGLES

The top 16 men and 16 women who have accumulated the most grand prix points and have competed in at least 5 tournaments.

The ITTF will invite one man and one woman from the association hosting the 2013 World Tour Grand Finals.

DOUBLES

The top 8 men's doubles pairs and 8 women's doubles pairs who have accumulated the most grand prix points, as a pair, and have competed in at least 4 tournaments.

In the case that one player appears in two or more double pairs, only the highest qualifying pair will be considered.

UNDER 21 YEARS

The top 8 U21 men and 8 U21 women who have accumulated the largest number of grand prix points.

Players or pairs who finish equal on points for the last positions to qualify will be decided by their position on the last available
ITTF World Ranking list. If players or pairs are still equal, reference will be made to the previous World Ranking list and so on.

The Grand Finals

The ITTF World Tour Grand Finals were held from 9-12 January 2014 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates at the AlNasr Sports Club, Oud Meitha Street, Bur Dubai.

Here is the list of the 16 men who accumulated sufficient Grand Prix points and met the additional qualifying criteria of competing in at least five events (tournaments) and therefore were invited to take part in the 2013 Grand Finals men's singles event.

Some players accumulated sufficient Grand Prix points but didn't compete in sufficient events to be eligible to take part in the prestigious end of season grand finals (NE).

Rank

Elig

Points

Events

Continents

Player (Family Name, Given Name)

Assoc

1

1150

5

1

MA, Long

China

2

647

6

2

FAN, Zhendong

China

3

625

6

2

XU, Xin

China

4

557

5

3

SHIONO, Masato

Japan

5

513

6

2

YAN, An

China

6

433

6

2

ZHANG, Jike

China

7

369

5

1

WANG, Hao

China

8

339

5

2

OVTCHAROV, Dimitrij

Germany

9

323

9

2

SALIFOU, Abdel-Kader

France

10

278

9

2

CHAN, Kazuhiro

Japan

11

238

7

2

CHUANG, Chih-Yuan

Chinese Taipei

NE

209

2

2

FANG, Bo

China

NE

169

4

1

ZHOU, Yu

China

12

164

5

2

NIWA, Koki

Japan

NE

151

4

1

SHIBAEV, Alexander

Russia

NE

150

1

1

XU, Chenhao

China

NE

143

4

2

YOSHIDA, Kaii

Japan

13

143

6

2

KIM, Minseok

South Korea

14

142

8

2

TAKAKIWA, Taku

Japan

NE

139

4

2

MIZUTANI, Jun

Japan

15

138

6

2

MATSUDAIRA, Kenta

Japan

16

136

7

3

MATSUMOTO, Cazuo

Brazil

R E S E R V E S

17

122

5

3

WANG, Eugene

Canada

NE

119

2

2

HAO, Shuai

China

18

119

7

2

GAO, Ning

Singapore

19

116

6

2

CHEN, Chien-An

Chinese Taipei

NE

113

2

2

BOLL, Timo

Germany

20

112

5

1

MACHADO, Carlos

Spain

The ITTF also invited Abdulla Almohaiseni from the host association (United Arab Emirates).

China's Yan An and Japan's Kenta Matsudaira declined to take part and their places were taken by Eugene Wang from Canada and Gao Ning from Singapore.